finishes fourth in state competition Scott Miller, a school bus mechanic with the Brockport Central School District for 14 years, finished fourth-place in New York state at a mechanics competition held in Albany on July 12. Competing against 18 other mechanics from the state, Miller completed both hands-on and written tests. For the hands-on component, there were several workstations where the mechanics needed to diagnose and fix problems on a variety of school buses. The mechanics had five minutes per bus to identify 10 exterior and interior problems, and problems under the buses. They also had to identify 10 parts taken off a bus. In addition, they had to determine whether the brakes were good. "I do these things all day, every day, just not on a timed-basis," Miller said. "It was really a great test of my abilities." Miller qualified for the state competition by finishing second among Rochester-area bus mechanics at the School Bus Road-eo held in Brockport on May 31. "I was glad to have the support from Bill (Sweeting, head mechanic) and my co-workers," Miller said. "They encouraged me to compete and I was able to use the knowledge that they taught me over the years. You will never find a better group of guys to work with than the ones at the Brockport Central Bus Garage." Since the mechanics competition portion of the Bus Road-eo is new, Miller hopes that more mechanics will become interested in attending future competitions. "There just aren't enough mechanics now, but maybe in a year or two it will go national like the bus road-eo," Miller said. "I enjoyed talking with other mechanics and finding out how they do things." This year the bus road-eo state winners went on to compete in Atlanta, Georgia. |
